GULLIVER’S TRAVEL

Book Review of Gulliver’s Travel 

Gulliver’s Travel is a satire-fantasy by Jonathan Swift in 1726 which mocks both the traveler’s
stories and human nature of the people he meets during his voyage. This book is also
considered as science-fiction. Gulliver was first a surgeon and then a captain of several ships as
the writer says.
This novel has two parts: 1. Voyage to Lilliput 2. Voyage to Brobdingnag. The travel begins with
a short introduction of Gulliver’s life before the voyages. His father had a small estate in notting
hampshire. He was the third of the five sons. He married Miss Mary Burton.

1. Voyage to Lilliput
In his first voyage in the ship Antelope, whose master is Captain William Prichard. They were hit
by a violent storm and most of the crew member died and were missing. He moved forward
looking for help but eventually slept at a smooth grass.
Next morning he found himself tied with roped all over the body. And noticed that there were
tiny people about 6 inches tall, who were the inhabitants of the island of the country Lilliput. At
first, they were attacking with arrows on him but, soon realized he is of no harm to them.
The Lilliputians were worried of his size that it might damage or hurt the people and their
subjects. Because of his good behavior he was given his own residence in Lilliput. He soon
became the favorite of the royal court.
The Lilliputians had a lot of trouble providing him food, making him bed to sleep etc. He was
gradually been given liberty to move around but with some rules. When he wanted to go out in
the streets everyone were given a notice prior to his arrival so none gets hurt by him.
The neighbors of the Lilliputians, the Blefuscudians were having a political fight since ages
about from which side a person cracks his egg.
Gulliver helps the Lilliputians by defeating their neighbors, the Blefuscudians by stealing their
fleet. For this the emperor gave him the greatest award in their kingdom. But when the emperor
asked the man-mountain to reduce the island of Blefuscu he denied, dissatisfying the emperor
and the royal court.
Gulliver was charged with treason and other crimes; one where he was putting out the fire in the
empresses room in the middle of the night by his urine due to the circumstances. He was
convicted to be blinded.
With the help of his friend, Reldresal, he escapes to Blefuscu where he finds a deserted boat
and with the help of other Lilliputians he repairs the boat within ten months and leaves the
country.
He spots a ship far away from him and sends signal to rescue him but the lady in that ship could
not see it. He then moves further and again gives signal which was noticed by the lady. He had
brought some sheep and cows in his pocket to breed them in his country. He when told his
friends about his voyage they didn’t believed him but when he showed them the cows and
sheep’s they were shocked.
There were many laws of Lilliput that were not reliable for Gulliver because if those laws were in
our country it would had made a great injustice.

2. Voyage to Brobdingnag
Gulliver soon decides to go on another voyage. He starts their voyage with Captain John
Nicholas, in Adventure. Their journey till the Cape of Good Hope was peaceful, and they stayed there to
drink fresh water but ended up spending their winter. The ship was required to be repaired and the
Captain got sick.
Soon they left and started to move forward. Sometimes there were violent winds and the other day it was
calm waters, but the Captain said that there will be another storm. And the next day, there was a violent
storm. The storm was so strong, by which they were carried that they didn’t knew in which part of the
world they were.
After some days the water became calm again and fortunately the ship wasn’t damaged. The Captain then
decided to sail towards the east. After few weeks, they saw an island, which was the Brobdingnag. They
took the boat to the island to look for fresh water. Gulliver went along with the other person as he was
interested in seeing the new country. Gulliver walked to the other side of the island, and he found the
country was rocky. When he got back to the boat, the other person was already on the boat and moving
towards the ship as quickly he could. He was going to call them but when he looked on the other side
there was giant creature running towards the boat. As soon as he saw him he quickly ran away. The giant
creature was about seventy feet high.
He entered into a lawn full of grass about seven metres high and corns were thirteen metres high. He
wanted to get out of the field but then he saw a giant man walking towards him, he was shocked and
scared. The giant person was shocked too and he ran and Gulliver followed him to the farmer’s house.
Farmer’s family was surprised seeing a small creature. Soon everybody got adjusted with him and the
farmer’s daughter cared for Gulliver, she taught him their language. The farmer introduced him to the
village and started showing people out of the village and earned money.
Soon Gulliver after continuously performing tricks became sick. The farmer then sold him to the queen
and the farmer’s daughter was hired to take care of Gulliver. Compared to them Gulliver was too tiny for
living on the big furniture’s, so the queen made him a small house in which he was carried.
The king loved to hear about his country, the big buildings and the laws. He talked to him about his
country in detail. But the king made fun of his country and he was shocked. He didn’t like how the king
criticized his country. The king wanted him to breed if any other ship like his came to the shore. He didn’t
wanted to stay there anymore.
One day, they were going to the beach, and his travelling box (his house) was snatched by an eagle and
then dropped into the sea. He was then picked by some people and was brought back. When the eagle
snatched him it was like destiny also didn’t wanted him to be there.
During his stay at the farmer’s house he experienced how it is dangerous being small as anyone can hurt
you, this is when he realized how Lilliputians would have felt about him.

Gulliver’s Travels is great fantasy book to read. It builds up curiosity at some places which is
good and interesting. After reading chapters I keep on imagining that how would it be like and
all that. I feel everyone should read this book who likes fantasy genre. There were lots of things
to be learned from the book like self-respect and self-discipline when Gulliver was told to reduce
the land of the other kingdom he denied. Respect to others, acceptance of our own responsibility
were the characteristics Gulliver showed.